The Boston Reds (called the Boston Unions in some sources) of 1884 were a

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in baseball league, leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Moder ...

team that competed in the short-lived

Union Association The Union Association was an American professional baseball league which competed with Major League Baseball, lasting for just the 1884 season. St. Louis won the pennant and joined the National League the following season. Seven of the twelv ...

History

One of the last teams to join the

, which operated only for the season, the Reds were owned by George Wright, whose long association with professional baseball (including the first major-league team in Boston, the Red Stockings) lent sorely-needed credibility to the fledgling league. The team was managed by Tim Murnane, who was also their regular first baseman. In their one season of existence, the Reds finished with a record of , in fourth place in the league. Their top-hitting regular was

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to catch ...

Ed Crane, who batted .285 with 12

home runs In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run ...

, and their best pitcher was Dupee Shaw, who was 21–15 with an ERA of 1.77. Shaw struck out 18 St. Louis Maroons in a game on July 19.

Ballpark

Dartmouth Street Grounds Boston 1887 Sanborn map

The club played their home games at the Dartmouth Street Grounds, also known as the Union Athletic Grounds or Union Grounds. A diagram in ''

The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe,'' also known locally as ''the Globe'', is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes. ''The Boston Globe'' is the oldest and largest daily new ...

'' on April 3, 1884, around the start of construction, indicated the layout as follows: Huntington Avenue (to the north, some distance back from the main stands and home plate); Boston and Albany Railroad tracks (northeast—home plate and third base); Dartmouth Street (southeast—left and center fields);

Boston and Providence Railroad The Boston and Providence Railroad was a railroad company in the states of Massachusetts and Rhode Island which connected its namesake cities. It opened in two sections in 1834 and 1835 - one of the Rail transportation in the United States, fir ...

tracks (south—center and right fields); Irvington Street (west, right field and third base—approximately corresponds to Yarmouth Street). Those details match the Sanborn map. The field was to be encircled by a bicycle track, as a number of ballparks were in those days, owing to the growing popularity of cycling. The property once used by the Boston Unions is now occupied by Copley Place. The field had a capacity of 4,575.

References

External links

1884 Boston Reds
at Baseball-Reference.com
Sanborn map, 1887, showing ballparkSanborn map, 1914, showing armory which was built on part of ballpark site
{{Union Association 1884 establishments in Massachusetts 1884 disestablishments in Massachusetts Baseball teams established in 1884 Baseball teams disestablished in 1884 Reds Defunct baseball teams in Massachusetts Professional baseball teams in Massachusetts Union Association teams